Teasers, down & across
- Ranchi hosts first round of national crossword contest

Students now have a chance to go up, down and across to decimate opponents on the puzzle board.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has come up with an event for students to exhibit their crossword-solving skills.

The first round of the first CBSE Cryptic Crossword Contest was held at DPS-Ranchi’s auditorium on Wednesday with chief minister Hemant Soren doing the honours.

“Despite the state bearing tags of backwardness and illiteracy, it is nice to know that such a national event is being launched here,” Hemant said during his inaugural speech.

Patna-based civil society Extra-C, which specialises in organising such competitions, is co-ordinating the event.

According to the format, the contest is divided into two rounds — city and national — that will be held from July to December.

The city rounds, which began on Wednesday, will be held in 34 places across the country, including Ranchi and Bokaro, and will be over by mid-November.

Wednesday saw 24 team with two members each vying for the top two slots. At the end of the event, DPS team members Agnimitra Anand and Aditya Sinha became winners and the team from JVM (Shyamali) was declared runner-up.

Thus DPS qualified for the national round, while runner-up JVM-Shyamali will be kept in standby for the nationals in case the winning team fails to take part. The national round would be held in Delhi in December.

Raj Narayan Singh of Extra-C, the national co-ordinator of the event, said that members of the winning team at the national level will get Rs 25,000 each, while those of the runner-up team will get Rs 15,000 each.

Solving crossword helps improve vocabulary, reasoning, lateral thinking and analytical ability. “It is a mental exercise that can help students in many ways,” said state HRD minister Geetasree Oraon who was the guest of honour on the occasion.

Wednesday’s event coincided with the closing ceremony of the year-long silver jubilee celebrations of the cradle.

Students presented a programme on the occasion that highlighted culture of various states, including Jharkhand.